Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus Warm Up for CMT Awards

Things might get a little dangerous at the CMT Awards on Monday night with Billy Ray Cyrus and powerhouse daughter Miley co-hosting.

“We did some promos a few weeks ago and they kept having Miley say all the real serious things and I’d just step in there and say, ‘I wanna set something on fire!’ ” Cyrus tells PEOPLE. “We just went through this deal with these seatbelts and here I am doing promos for this award show, and all I say is ‘I’m gonna set something on fire!’ And I just said, ‘Man, I’m going to get in trouble!”

Miley, meanwhile, has stayed in good graces, despite confounding her pop with her recent decision to legally change her name to Miley Ray. “I think that s the first sign of someone flipping out!” says Cyrus, jokingly. I tried to talk her into keeping her name as it was.”

But, he says, he relented because he believes it was Miley’s way of honoring her grandfather, Ronald Ray. “Miley would always end her concert show with this song called ‘I Miss You’ as an encore and the [video] footage they would show is my dad riding a horse with him holding her. They were very close.”

With their co-hosting duties, their hit duet Ready, Set, Don t Go and a new Hannah Montana movie in the works, dad and daughter are famously tight, too – but Billy Ray insists he won t be making any guest appearances on “The Miley and Mandy Show” on YouTube.

“I’m old-fashioned, man!” laughs Cyrus, who is in the process of writing and recording songs for a new album. Quite frankly, I’m immersing myself in music and I don’t have any time to mess around right now.”